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Business Highlights

LOS ANGELES (AP) â¿¿ Sales of bank-owned homes and those already on the foreclosure path fell sharply in the second quarter, reflecting a thinner slate of properties for sale in many cities as banks take a measured approach to placing homes on the market.

Even so, foreclosure sales' share of all U.S. home purchases grew in the April-to-June period, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

The combination of fewer bank-owned homes for sale and stronger demand during the traditional spring home-buying season also pushed sale prices higher. Bank-owned homes and those in some stage of foreclosure posted the biggest annual increase in average sales price since 2006, before the housing bubble burst, the firm said.

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Barclays appoints retail head as new CEO

LONDON (AP) â¿¿ Barclays PLC on Thursday named the head of its retail and business banking operations its new chief executive, as shares in the troubled bank dropped following word of a new investigation into its deals.

Barclays said that Antony Jenkins, 51, would fill the post vacated by the resignation of Bob Diamond in the wake of a scandal over attempts to manipulate a key interest rate index.

Jenkins takes over just as the bank has been hit by more bad news.

Barclays disclosed Wednesday that Britain's Serious Fraud Office was looking into payments the bank made to Qatar Holdings LLC when Barclays raised more than 5 billion pounds ($8 billion) of emergency capital at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008. The funds raised by Barclays in the Middle East saved it from joining other U.K. banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds in taking a government bailout.

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Carlyle buying DuPont coatings business for $4.9 billion

DOVER, Del. (AP) â¿¿ The DuPont Co. said Thursday that it is selling its performance coatings business for $4.9 billion in cash to The Carlyle Group, giving the private equity firm another investment in the automotive and industrial segments.